1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a food and drink conveying device for use in a sushi shop and the like using the so-called revolving sushi system for circulating e.g. a variety of dished-up sushi through a conveying path so that customers can take out the circulating dished-up sushi from the conveying path at their own choice to eat them.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, in sushi shops using the food and drink conveying system for circulating the dished-up sushi in a dining area, cooks make sushi in the kitchen or cookery by making a small, oval-shaped, vinegared rice ball and then providing a topping on the vinegard rice ball. The cook puts up the sushi on a plate, and then puts the plate on the circulating conveying path to sequentially convey the dished-up sushi to the dining area. The customers take out the variety of circulating sushi from the conveying path at their own choice to eat them.
Incidentally, those sushi shops wish that all sorts of sushi be taken in the possible same number by the customers, but the popularity varies depending on the sorts of sushi presented. If many sorts of sushi of the same number are fed in the conveying path in sequence, regardless of the popularity, then many sorts of sushi of low popularity will be left in the conveying path.
For avoidance of this, the following method is generally adopted to feed a variety of sushi to the conveying path. For instance, the proportion in which a variety of sushi are fed to the conveying path is preset for every type of sushi so that the variety of sushi can be fed to the conveying path in the preset proportion at any time.
However, it is, needless to say, difficult for cooks to memorize those different proportions for the variety of sushi to be fed to the conveying path. Also, when the sushi shop is crowded with customers, it is very hard for the cooks to grasp which sorts of sushi the customers haue eaten and to supply those sorts of sushi at any time. This may produce the disadvantage that short supply or excess of supply of specific sorts of sushi may be caused.
In consideration of these circumstances, the present invention has been made. It is the object of the invention to provide a food and drink conveying device that can surely feed a variety of foods and drinks in a specified proportion without any need for the cook to grasp the patterns of the different proportions preset for every food and drink.
To achieve the above-noted object, the present invention provides a conveying device comprising a plurality of mounting bases, arranged on the conveying path, for mounting containers thereon; a mounting base identifier, provided on the mounting bases, for identifying the mounting bases; a container identifier provided on the containers, for identifying the containers; a mounting base reading device for reading the mounting base identifiers provided on the mounting bases arranged on the conveying path; a container reading device for reading the container identifiers provided on the containers circulating through the conveying path; presetting means for presetting items to be served on the mounting bases; judging means for identifying mounting bases with no container thereon based on output signals from the mounting base reading device and the container reading device; and a display for displaying items to be made based on output signals from the judgment means. This arrangement enables the cook(s) to surely serve a plurality of items of foods and/or drinks in a specified proportion without any need to grasp the patterns of the different proportions preset for every food and drink.
It is preferable that the food and drink conveying device-includes a detecting means for calculating the circulating time of the containers mounted on their respective mounting bases circulating through the conveying path based on the output signals from the mounting base reading device and the container reading device, and for detecting a container whose circulating time exceeds a predetermined time. This produces the advantage of enabling the food and drink whose circulating time exceeds the predetermined time to be selected from the foods and drinks served on the mounting bases on the conveying path.
The food and drink conveying device may also include a take-away device to take away the container whose circulating time exceeds the predetermined time from the conveying path. This arrangement enables only the food and drink whose circulating time exceeds the predetermined time to be taken away from the conveying path.
Further, the food and drink conveying device may also include a shortcut mechanism for bridging a part of the conveying path to produce a plurality of short circulating conveying paths so that the mounting bases can be conveyed in circulation through one of the short circulating conveying paths via the shortcut mechanism. This arrangement enables a part of the conveying path to be paused.